Two Masters

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be loyal to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.” Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.  And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God.”

Luke 16:13-15

We are called to be His servants, His disciples, His Beloved.  He sings a banner of love over us, and in that love we find perfect peace and redemption.  We are saved from the worst of ourselves and of the world.  We are forgiven for all the suffering that we have caused.  We are restored to a greater height, that we might pour out and love each other the same way.

What if, by thinking we are His servants, we are actually the Pharisees?  The Pharisees completely believed that they were loving God: they lived righteously, they preached to each other, they spread the word of the Lord.  Sin was unclean and abominable in their eyes.  That is God, right?

What if we have it all wrong?  What if we have justified ourselves, as a church body, so that God’s word fits our lives and our needs?  If Jesus spoke these words today, would we be obedient?   Who would listen to Him today?  Probably the same people: the poor. 

So why does the church “interpret” out of being poor?

Jesus came at the end of the Hellenistic Era and during the Pax Romana: the epitome of empirical success.  Philosophy and education and “wisdom” were rapant.  Riches and greed abounded throughout the empire, there was a promise of more and more and more if you simply submitted to that pursuit of money.

How is that time any different than this time?  What is the difference between the Acts church and today’s church?  God is still the same.  We believe that everything else Jesus said is still the same.

It only makes sense that Jesus preached so much about money.  He knew it would be a controversy and He spelled it all out for us.  So why exactly are we still worshipping money?

These are just some of my questions.  What is the difference between stewardship and poverty?  How much less hypocritical would Christians be if they actually did what Jesus commanded?    

Christianity is one of the biggest religions in the world.  Will all of us enter?  Am I personally “rich in God?”

I couldn't say.

Over and over He pleads, “ He who has ears let him hear.” What if, because we want to be comfortable, and we want God to fit in our little American Church Box, we aren’t listening?

It seems to be that all of these questions have a very simply answer; but the life that would result from being obedient would be completely crazy.  Giving up literally everything would be counter-culture. It would be revolutionary.  People would have to rely completely on God for provision and each other for love and community.  They would have nothing else to do with their time or their talents but go into the world and be persecuted.  It doesn't make any sense at all.

I don’t know, but it seems that is exactly what Jesus called his followers to do.